The chairman of the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition today joined National Sheriffs’ Association official Larry Dever, of Arizona’s Cochise County, to ask Congress to spend at least $2.5 billion over five years to strengthen the hand of local lawmen.

The spending request exceeds the $1.4 billion already being spent over three years for U.S. assistance to Mexico under the Bush administration’s Merida Initiative

“Our border is wide open; it is very porous and definitely unprotected and vulnerable,” Gonzalez testified. “We are fed up and tired of failed policies and promises.”

Gonzalez and Dever told members of the House Committee on Homeland Security that the Obama administration border security offensive rolled out last week with great fanfare had been developed without input from border law enforcement officials.

The law enforcement officers testified on Capitol Hill as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano headed to Mexico for two days of security consultations designed to choke off the flow of smuggled firearms and drug cash shipments from the United States into Mexico.

Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder are coordinating efforts with Mexican counterparts to help Mexican authorities combat drug cartel violence that has claimed more than 7,000 lives over the last 15 months.

Obama administration officials, led by Richard Barth, of the Department of Homeland Security, vowed greater federal collaboration with border law enforcement starting with a face-to-face meeting on Friday in Laredo with Napolitano.

Barth also pointed to Napolitano’s decision to expand the reach of a $60 million-a-year federal assistance program known as Operation Stonegarden to enable local law enforcement agencies to use federal funds for overtime, training and equipment.

Barth and Army Maj. Gen. Peter Aylward, of the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau, told the panel that no decision had been made on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s request for the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 federally-paid National Guard troops to Texas’ border to augment patrols and checkpoints searching for southbound arms and bulk cash shipments.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, chairman of the House subcommittee on emergency preparedness and response that held the hearing, told the Houston Chronicle that he hoped to orchestrate closer collaboration by having federal, state and local law enforcement agencies develop consensus recommendations for Congress within 30 days.

“There is a disconnect and we need to fix that,” Cuellar said. “I will use my authority to conduct aggressive oversight so that we can stamp out these unnecessary turf battles.”